Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Quick Releases

OK.

*deep breath*

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be Godawful, so I have no excuse when it comes to posting something of substance. I WILL post something on the new STA tomorrow—heck, I've been thinking about it long enough now. Perhaps I'll also post a retrospective of some of the STAs I've owned and loved (think flagpole seatposts and dinnerplate sprockets and no brakes). Or maybe that can be a follow-up post.

I'll save you the trouble of figuring it out for yourself and just tell you. The Odyssey post tells you virtually everything about the Rollcages, from material, to weight, to the thickness of the damn sidewalls. Read it carefully enough and magnify the photos and you could probably make your own. (Yes Alienation, I'm sure you already are.) As for the Fly "update"? It doesn't tell you ANYTHING. I'm still not entirely sure what an "integrated dropout" is supposed to be and why it's supposed to be better. Maybe the language barrier is part of it, but damn.

In other news, this photo really depressed me:

That's a new FitEdLT built up. Hard to believe it's even an Edwin (I'm actually surprised it didn't spit that seat/post combo out). The s3ification of BMX is nearly complete. Between this and the imminent discontinuation of the Barcode, it's been a tough start to '09.

Oh, and if you run 11-, 13- or 37-butted bars, you might want to check this shot out (borrowed from BMXboard):

"discontinuation of the Barcode"??!? Where did you hear this from? When Joe talked about shifting the Ruben overseas (sucky) he mentioned that the Barcode would still be made by Maas, and that was only a few months back.

The revolutionary and proprietary Fly dropouts are created by making a frame that has a looptail (the chainstay and seatstay are one long tube with a bend in the back) with no dropout, a 14th century Scottish swordsmith heats the rear end up to 2000 degrees, hammers it flat, and then the axle slot and LITEWAIT reliefs are machined last. It is 43x stronger than the 3/8 inch thick dropouts on the original Crmo 2hip Pork, yet lighter than the dropouts on that new Standard with 63 laser S emblem cutouts. We expect this design to not only revolutionize the industry, but also destroy all competition as we have the last living Scottish swordsmith on retainer.

bikeguide's thread about the new sta has devolved into people lusting after pictures of old stas and shorty's. there are some choice pics and i'm totally jealous of the guy with a basement of nos standards.

The STA pulled BMX through some tough times. It will always have a place in my heart, even though ordering one from Goodtimes took the better part of 4 months.

I remember when Robbo got that blue cammo STA and I bunnyhopped with it...he freaked out because he was worried about it being strong enough. I was probably a good 40 pounds lighter than him. Wild times.

i think we're 'bout to see a lot more photos like the broken bar picture with parts continuing to get lighter and Sean Burns having made the "jump off a building to flat" popular again...good time to be a dentist.

"Read it carefully enough and magnify the photos and you could probably make your own. (Yes Alienation, I'm sure you already are.)"

Substitute kink for alienation.http://bmx.transworld.net/2008/10/22/kink-warehouse-tour/One of those pictures is a guy looking at a rim design (that looks just like a ribcage) on some computer program, with a micrometer and a cutaway of what also looks just like a ribcage to his side.

""Read it carefully enough and magnify the photos and you could probably make your own. (Yes Alienation, I'm sure you already are.)"

Substitute kink for alienation.http://bmx.transworld.net/2008/10/22/kink-warehouse-tour/One of those pictures is a guy looking at a rim design (that looks just like a ribcage) on some computer program, with a micrometer and a cutaway of what also looks just like a ribcage to his side."

And George French took no measurements off any existing rim, everything on the ribcage is based on completely original measurements with no thought to anything that existed before it?

I'm glad to hear that the new version of the Barcode is pending arrive, as opposed to never-to-be-see-again... Would make for some very dark days if it left.

Soooooo super amped up about the STA... just the mere fact that we can even mention such a combination of letters is outstanding. I'm tempted to wipe the dust off mine, and add a dinner-plate spocket in line with the tea-cup saucer dropouts.

I agree about most of the G-Sport shit being pretty amazing (I ordered a Ratchet right when it came out and I was riding a year old Ti/Ti Profile), but why won't G give up on Wombolts? They are fucking awful, they are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist, and I've seen 130 pound kids snap them like nothing. I've seen 10 year old pairs of Profiles that are perfect. I do however agree with G-Sport on one thing: Fighting cops is awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZOXDmArMh4&NR=1

MISSION STATEMENT

In a world where every new BMX "innovation" is met at best with praise and at worst with a shrug, there needs to be a voice of dissent. SPRFLS is that voice. Make no mistake—we welcome progress, provided it actually IS progress. You are not the width of your handlebars.

Feel free to e-mail suggestions, corrections, tips or death threats to sprfls@gmail.com

Even more pointless (and sometimes entirely un-BMX-related) twittering at http://twitter.com/SPRFLS and http://twitter.com/russbengtson